"A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!"
Psalm 90
It is when we take the opening and closing sections of the Psalm together (1, 2 and 13-17) that light breaks for us. In the glorious affirmation of faith in 1, 2, we are shown that God's eternity and changelessness is the answer to, not simply the antithesis of, our homelessness and the brevity of our life. To make this affirmation is to cast anchor in a sure and safe anchorage, for it is to recognise an eternal dimension in our make up. God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV), and man finds his truest destiny and fulfilment in God. This is the Psalmist's testimony. The prayer for mercy in 13-17 is really a cry for a reversal, that is, a prayer for a complete change in the situation through the mercy of God, a turning back of the clock - and more, a going on to the new things of God. It is faith rising to challenge the doom of man with a sense of his destiny in God. 'Return' in 13 echoes the 'return' in 3, and there seems to be an echo here of Deuteronomy 32:36. In 14 the completeness of the change of mood from 3-12 is very graphic. The note in 15 seems to find an echo in Isaiah's words 'double for all her sins' (Isaiah 40:2). The association of 'Thy work' (16) with 'our work' (17) is an important one, indicating God's purposes in the world and our being caught up into them. This is the work of God, for man to be brought to this, from the desolation and sadness of 3-12.
Here, then, are the two possibilities: either, bringing our years to an end with a sigh, or lives touched with the beauty of the Lord and their work established. That is surely a gospel worth proclaiming!